Roulette 2024-2025 Resident David Leon presents new solo music for saxophone and modular synthesizers. Describing his approach as “surreal ASMR,” Leon constructs a piece around the quiet extreme of his saxophone. Inspired by the spacious environments of ambient electronic music and field recordings as much as the visceral performances of New York’s downtown improvisors and Miami’s noise artists, Leon’s solo create spaces that feel immediate, concrete and physical.

“a supremely gifted player” –NYC Jazz Record

“[David Leon’s] extroversion feels like a natural part of his musical personality, spiking his agile post-bop with nifty conceptual brio that never gets in the way of his desire to communicate.” –The Quietus

A livestream will be available free of charge at 8pm on the day of the performance and archived for future viewing. Watch below or on YouTube.

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David Leon is a Miami-born saxophonist, woodwinds player, composer, and improviser based in Brooklyn, NY. His work is guided by a persistent search for vitality through autonomy, contradiction, hyperbole, and humor. David currently leads multiple ensembles include a newly-formed quartet with Brandon Seabrook, Henry Fraser and Kayvon Gordon, Locomotive – a double horns-guitars-percussion trio co-led with Adam O’Farrill, and Thumbs – a duo with multi-reedist Yuma Uesaka. He has released four albums as a bandleader including his most recent Bird’s Eye – a woodwinds-gayagum-drumset trio described as “stately and buoyant, intricate and sly” (The Wire) and “unlike anything else” (PostGenre). An active sideperson, he has contributed to projects led by composer-improvisors Stephan Crump, Cory Smythe, Lesley Mok, Tomas Fujiwara, Nick Dunston, Lisa Hoppe, Jason Nazary and others. His work has been recognized by Roulette Intermedium, The CINTAS Foundation, The Jazz Gallery’s Mentoring Series, New Music USA, Metropolis Ensemble, Detroit Composer’s Project, Compositum Musicae Novae, the National Youngarts Foundation, and the ASCAP Foundation.